Open Data Portal

The City of Cambridge is committed to using technology to increase accessibility to and transparency of information owned by the City. Providing information through our Open Data Portal is one means through which the City can foster engagement and collaboration with its citizenry. Our overall goal is to make government data available in easy to find and usable formats, therefore creating meaningful opportunities for the public to help solve complex challenges.

Other goals of the City’s Open Data Initiative are:

Providing Greater Access. The City is committed to providing to the public greater access to City data by instituting an Open Data Initiative to provide the City and the public with opportunities to work collaboratively on complex challenges facing our community.

Creating Greater Transparency. The City is committed to sharing information through this Open Data Initiative to create opportunities for greater transparency.

Improving Delivery of City Services. The City is committed to accessing Cambridge’s diverse body of expertise to develop new analyses, insights, and findings which potentially could assist the City’s efforts in providing efficient and effective government services.

Realizing Social and Commercial Value. Because data is a key resource for social and commercial activities, the large amount of data generated by the City can be a resource in creating innovative business and services solutions that deliver social and commercial value.

The public can access Cambridge’s open data from various sources. The links below describe the various methods for accessing Cambridge Open Data.

Cambridge Open Data on Socrata

Socrata is designed to offer Open Data solutions for government innovations. The Open Data Portal gives citizens the opportunity to access and use public information. The datasets in Socrata can be reviewed, compared, analyzed and used to create different visualizations such as graphs, charts, and maps. Socrata's Open Data Portal has been implemented across multiple government organizations across the country and even across the world.

GitHub

The Cambridge GIS GitHub Data Download Site is the developers hub for Cambridge GIS data downloads. There are over one hundred Cambridge GIS data layers on this Open Source Web site. Developers can consume the data for Web maps using either Open Source map clients or GIS software. GitHub recognizes our GeoJSON files and creates interactive maps using Mapbox for most files. They can be individually downloaded or viewed within the MapBox feature on the site.

Geographic Information System (GIS) Data Dictionary

The GIS Data Dictionary is your connection to Cambridge GIS data. Detailed descriptions are available along with data download links for a variety of different GIS file formats. We have over one hundred Cambridge GIS data layers available in a number of formats, making it easy for you to use the data freely.

Community Development Department (CDD) Facts and Maps

The city's Community Development Department hosts a variety of different datasets through their Facts and Maps pages. Data can be downloaded for free from the takes and links on the Census Tract page. There are multiple dataset downloads available on the Top 25 Employers page as well as some of the other business and labor force data such as the workforce data sets and economic census. Finally, you can get access to the education data though the CDDs Education Data page.